Winter 2025
Awah Favour Matthew (Biochemistry)
Azucena Garcia Gutierrez is currently in her second year as a PhD student in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Originally from the vibrant city of Toluca, México, she has always been passionate about teaching languages like English and Spanish. After completing her master’s degree in the UK, she made the exciting move to New York City in 2023 to dive deeper into her PhD studies. She has been teaching at Queens College for almost a year now and is absolutely thrilled to focus her research on critical pedagogy. Her goal is to challenge the traditional norms in language education and make a real difference! Outside of academia, she is all about traveling, learning from new people, engaging in endless conversations, and indulging in my guilty pleasure—watching trashy TV shows!
Course site: Intermediate Spanish II
Jahyeon Kwon (English)
Course site: Eighteenth Century Prose and Poetry
As a second-year PhD student at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), Jasmine Tom is working towards a doctoral degree in Mathematics. She earned her Master of Arts in Mathematics through the Contiguous Bachelor’s/Master’s Pathway (4+1 program) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, her research interests lie in Hyperbolic Geometry with an emphasis on Fuchsian groups and their role in constructing hyperbolic surfaces. Particularly, she hopes to further my studies to Teichmüller Theory or 3-Manifold Theory.
Course site: MATH 2003 – Precalculus & Elements of Calculus 1A
John D. Frank is a PhD student in Political Science at CUNY’s Graduate Center. He has taught sociology as an Adjunct Lecturer for over twenty years at Lehman College and LaGuardia Community College. His research focuses on theories of identity formation and political identity. He holds a BA from Columbia, a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard, and an MFA from City College of New York.
Course site: American Politics and Government
Reflection post: Teaching Political Science with OER
Lava Schadde (they/them) is a third-year PhD student in the philosophy department and a fellow at the Center for Global Ethics and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. They teach at Baruch College and and are currently the Co-Managing Editor of the Journal of Social Philosophy. They are interested in Social & Political philosophy, Feminist and Trans philosophy, and will dabble in Critical Phenomenology and Ordinary Language Philosophy. They especially like to mull over the interrelations between embodiment, ontology, and language, thinking about such questions as: What kind of knowledge can we have of our bodies and our sex? What are the interrelations between our understanding of our gender and our sex? What role does and should our lived experience and lived body have when thinking about sex and gender? Apart from thinking about sex, gender, and the body, they are also interested in care ethics and care theory more broadly and are thinking about the interconnections between care ethics and sexual ethics. Before joining the Grad Center, Lava received their Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and History from the University of Zurich summa cum laude and studied Philosophy in the Master’s program at the Free University of Berlin. When they’re not doing philosophy, they enjoy gardening and hanging out with their cat Nin.
Course site: Political Philosophy – PHI 3230
Lea Coffineau (she/her) is a PhD student in cultural anthropology at the Graduate Center of CUNY. Born in Montreal and raised between France and Quebec, she worked as a stage performer in Paris before becoming a cultural journalist. She holds a BA in sociology from the University of Strasbourg and a MA in anthropology from The New School for Social Research. Her work concentrates on migrations and belonging, with a focus on the making of identities in postcolonial France. She also makes documentaries as a research method, and as a way to render anthropological knowledge accessible to a broader audience.
Course site: History of Anthropological Theory
Lia Crowley’s current research interests include ambivalent attitudes in the workplace, the use of big data to study organizations, and occupational health psychology.
Course site: Diversity in Organizations
Reflection post: Teaching Diversity in Organizations with OER
Mamudu Collins Ojonugwa (Biochemistry)
Course site: BIO 230 Microbiology lab
Marcela Joya is a researcher and writer specializing in Latin American and Afro-Antillean music, with eleven years of experience in archival research, ethnographic and audiovisual documentation. As a photographer and PhD student in Ethnomusicology she is interested in the methodological development of applied ethnomusicology through artistic interdisciplinarity.
Course site: THE WORLD OF MUSIC
Reflection post: Teaching and Learning Should be a Collective Mission for a Collective Purpose: That’s the Challenge
Md. Raihan Uddin is a researcher with a strong background in biophysics, computational chemistry, and structural biology. He has completed all required coursework and qualifying exams for his degree and has recently published a paper on complex I, exploring proton loading sites through computational modeling. Currently, he is investigating the proton transport mechanism of Plant NDH-1, aiming to deepen our understanding of bioenergetic proteins. Raihan is also actively seeking opportunities in data science, analytics, clinical data science, and bioinformatics, particularly in the healthcare domain.
Course site: University Physics II
Nada Ali is a PhD. Student in Quantum Information at City University of New York, Graduate Center (GC CUNY)
Course site: Physics
Nadim JP Essey (English)
Course site: English Writing 2
Natalie Erazo is a Colombian-American film programmer, writer, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. Their work focuses on films and moving image works that consider race, gender, labor, and decolonial praxis. Natalie has programmed film series for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and region(es), as well as organized screenings for youth audiences through The Repertory Project. Their writing has been published in Women’s Studies Quarterly, Hyperallergic, and the BAMblog.
They were a 2019 Visiting Fellow at NeXt Doc, and participated in the 2019 CreateNYC Leadership Academy, as well as the 2018 Industry Academy at Film at Lincoln Center. While studying film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (c/o ’16), Natalie served as Co-Director and Programmer for the Fusion Film Festival.
Most recently, Natalie served as Project Manager for NO EVIL EYE CINEMA (NEEC) and participated in the inaugural Artist-Educator training cohort at Maysles Documentary Center (MDC). They hold an M.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies from the Graduate Center, CUNY and are currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY.
Course site: Queer Theories
Oliver Silverman is a PhD Candidate in the CUNY Graduate Center Political Science Department.
Course site: Introduction to Political Theory
Reflection post: Teaching Political Theory with OER
Pierina Pighi Bel is a journalist, MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish (New York University), and PhD student at the Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures (LAILaC) program. Her main interests are South American feminism and Mad Studies.
Course site: Español de telenovelas – Learn Spanish with fun and engaging Latin American telenovelas
Reflection post: Open access education and soap operas
Victoria Murray (she/her), MSS, LCSW (Massachusetts) is a social worker, educator, and doctoral student in the Social Welfare program at the Graduate Center (CUNY). Victoria earned her Master’s in Social Service from Bryn Mawr College’s School of Social Work and Social Research in 2011 with a specialization in child and family well-being.
Course site: Child Welfare Policy
Yael Horowitz is a scholar-practitioner of Yiddish Theatre and friendship as a site of cultural transmission. She is working on her PhD in Theatre and Performance at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Course site: World Theatre History
Reflection post: Teaching Theatre with OER
Summer 2025
Jamie Banks is a PhD candidate in Classics. Their research interests lie in literary translation, scientific poetry, and Latin-vernacular bilingual identities in Early Modern Europe. They teach Latin as a “living” language whenever they can. Before returning to academia they taught in K-12 settings for gifted neurodivergent students.
Alexandra A. Rego is a doctoral candidate in Theatre and Performance at the Graduate Center. Her dissertation, titled Vestigial Choreographies, traces histories of climate anxiety in the long nineteenth century, writing dance theories of ephemera and other material objects.
Aline Van Neutgem is a PhD Student in Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center. She holds a Master’s degree in Administration from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. Her research experience includes work on cultural policy and social movements. Currently, her primary research interests lie in exploring comparative perspectives on gender-based violence in the U.S. and Latin America.
Adam Kocurek is a PhD candidate in History at The Graduate Center. He researches at the intersections of LGBTQ history, history of higher education, and labor history. He has BAs in History and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, and an MA in History. He teaches at Hunter College and works as a historic tour guide in New York City.
Ugur Akpinar is a PhD student in the History Department at the Graduate Center, CUNY, interested in the history of orphans and orphanages in the Middle East in the context of identity, capital, and violence. He holds an MA from Bogazici University, Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History. As a graduate teaching, he currently teaches world history at City College.
Fiona Brady is a third year PhD student in Philosophy at CUNY’s Graduate Center with interests in ethics and moral psychology, esp. as it relates to the Stoics. When not working in philosophy, she is leading historical walking tours in different neighborhoods of New York City, bouldering, or trying out new vegan recipes.
